Reviews
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Picoreview: Beauty and the Beast
Picoreview: Beauty and the Beast: exceeded my expectations by a considerable margin.
(Also, irrelevantly, I was sitting between two little girls who sang all the songs they knew, and an older woman who kept wiping her eyes, both of which I found pretty charming. :))
The showing I went to go see originally was sold out, which meant I basically spent four hours wandering vaguely around downtown Drogheda (spoiler: it hasn’t got 4 hours worth of entertainment in it) so I could go to the next one. I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to be worth four hours of puttering around.
I was, in fact, feeling pretty…cautious about it, overall. I hoped I’d like it. I wasn’t sure. The animated film has problems, especially with the timeline, that I figured would be extant in the live action version as well. I mean, obviously it was a *chance* to fix those problems, but every time I think an adaptation is going to take advantage of BEING AN ADAPTATION and FIX PROBLEMS WITH THE ORIGINAL, it doesn’t. So I didn’t have much faith.
But the screenplay was actually much stronger and dealt with…basically every issue I had with the animated movie. I was astonished. It had *other* problems, new ones of its own, but that’s what I want out of an adaptation, as expecting perfection is unreasonable. :)
Having JUST written my own version of BatB ([begin shameless self-promotion] ROSES IN AMBER [end shameless self-promotion]) there were moments early on where I went “oh but that’s not the way the story went,” but I got over those swiftly and settled back in to this being a new, improved version of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. And I really do think it was improved.
I shall have many thoughts, but not many spoilers, behind the cut.
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TV on DVD: s3 Arrow
TV on DVD: s3 Arrow: If I were stronger, I would stop watching Arrow now.
It’s not that I don’t like it. I *do* like Arrow; I’ve liked it from the start. I have issues with all the secret-keeping (issues which paid off in spades this season, actually, especially at the end), but I really like it and normally I’d be happy to watch it through five seasons, which is as far as it should go even if it’s probably going to go a lot farther. I want to see what happens with Diggs, particularly, because this could be the Diggs & Felicity Show for all I care and I’d be super thrilled. But it’s not, and my problem here is that I really, really loved the end of season 3.
I mean, really, truly loved it. And I…I want it to be done, with that ending. And it won’t be. It won’t be for a thousand reasons, not least of which is that they’ve, y’know, been renewed for a fourth season, and because there are now two spin-off shows plus Supergirl happening in the DCTVU, so even if Arrow ended, we’d probably see cameos and what-not in all those other shows, and because–
–well, I can’t say the last because without spoilers, so herein lies the spoiler cut. I’m going to say exactly what happens in the final scene and why it means a lot to me, so if you don’t want to know, don’t click through.
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too busy to post
I’m at that stage again where I’ve got a backlog of posts I want to write and am apparently never going to get to them so I should let it go
(let it go, can’t hold me back anymore / which reminds me that yesterday Young Indiana pulled all my hair over one shoulder so I would be “like Elsa” and so this morning I said to him “should I braid my hair like Elsa’s?” and he said yes and I did and he said “That’s not like Elsa. Elsa’s braid is on the other side.” And I was like “…yes. yes it is, now that you mention it. CLOSE ENOUGH.”)
and make posts on other topics instead of mooping about the ones I haven’t done. Or maybe I’ll do a quick round-up:
I have read some good books lately. One was Chrysoula Tzavelas’s WOLF INTERVAL, 3rd in the Senyaza (MATCHBOX GIRLS) series, and right now you can get all 3 books plus all her Senyaza short stories at that Kickstarter link for only $12!
Another is Deborah Blake‘s debut novel WICKEDLY DANGEROUS, which I totally failed to read in time to blurb and am sad about. It’s a splendid modern twist on Baba Yaga with some terrific characterisations and funny funny lines. Well worth reading.
And UNMADE, Sarah Rees Brennan‘s third Lynburn Legacy book is out, and ended the trilogy very satisfactorily.
I’ve watched the first episodes of Gotham, Agents of SHIELD, Arrow and The Flash. So far I like The Flash the best by a country mile, as it seems to be having *fun*, but I was thinking about this season’s TV and thought “I like Person of Interest best of the new stuff this season” and then realized I’m watching PoI season 1 on Netflix, not on tv. Oops.
My s9 Supernatural finally arrived. Now I just need time to sit down and binge-watch it. :)
Pretty sure I’ve given up on Elfquest: the Final Quest. My failure to give a damn is turning to active dislike of the story. I just…yeah. Don’t like it. I actually don’t like it, and that’s sad.
I have got so many things to do. Over and out.
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LXD
oh my GOD why did none of you TELL me about LXD (Legion of Extraordinary Dancers)? STREET DANCING SUPERHEROES, GUYS, AND YOU DIDN’T TELL ME. YOU ARE ALL FIRED!
Ted found the first season on Netflix the other night and thought “Catie must watch this.” Furthermore, he knew which two episodes I would like best before I watched them. Now we must watch the rest of them!
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Review: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
We went and saw a stage production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers on Wednesday, and the live simulcast of Tom Hiddleston in Corolianus last night. I’m going to wait to post my review of Corolianus because I know several people in America who are going to go see it in the next couple weeks and I don’t want to spoil any of the production stuff for them, and suspect they’d click through the spoiler cut so just won’t post it. Hah. :)
Seven Brides, however, I shall review:
